Introduction to The Lean Construction Summit
Is the UK Construction Industry at a revolutionary tipping point or in a steady state of evolution towards improvement? What are the forces that are driving construction to transform the way that it is currently delivered?
The 2019 Lean Construction Summit: “Lean Construction: Evolution or Revolution? Shaking it up” will aim to address the fundamental questions facing the Construction Industry, from the viewpoint and experience of our keynote speakers.
Some might say that Lean Construction is the industry’s ‘best kept secret’, that has clear value for client companies; it is a standard of excellence for Highways, Rail and major leading companies.
In line with previous years, LCI UK will present an exciting programme of speakers, a new format, enabling our delegates to strengthen their understanding of Lean, by tapping in to other people’s experiences through our seminars and networking sessions, as well as having the opportunity to explore all that UK Construction Week has to offer.
Agenda
08:00 | Registration and networking breakfast |
08:50 | Opening remarks from the chair Rob Walley, Board Director of the Lean Construction Institute UK and Senior Partner at Bourton Group |
09:00 |
Meeting the challenge
Presented by: Keith Waller, Programme Director at Construction Innovation Hub |
09:30 |
Leadership for 'lean' project delivery
Leadership and defined ‘shared values’ can form the roadmap for all stake holders to engage in a lean integrated project delivery methodology. Leadership can develop a strong culture to define the lean project delivery process. Leadership can develop and promote a learning environment for project teams to engage and improve.
Presented by: Kevin McHugh, Associate Director at Mace |
10:00 | Networking coffee break |
10:20 |
Tackling the climate crisis; delivering amazing places through modernising construction
Presented by: Steve Savage, Operations and People Director and Craig Davies, Group World Class Manufacturing Manager at Citu |
10:50 |
Building the present, creating the future; changing the way we create our built environment
Royal BAM Group is taking a leading role in the digital transformation of the international construction industry, this presentation will give an insight on a strategic, tactical and operational level. There is an urgent need to transform the way we shape our built environment. We are building the present while we are creating the future. We “make it before we make it.” In other words: we build digitally first, before we build physically. After a brief introduction to Royal BAM Group, the WHY, the HOW and the WHAT will be discussed, including examples of using digital technologies in real projects. The WHY part focuses on the needs of the digital transformation for the construction industry, showing that the world of construction is changing. In the second part, the HOW part, Royal BAM Group’s vision and strategy on the digital transformation is entailed. In the final part, the WHAT part, actual examples from daily practice in BAM are presented.
The presentation gives insight to the audience in the approach to lean digital transformation of a large international contractor.
Presented by: Menno de Jonge, Director of Digital Construction at Royal BAM Group |
11:20 | Structured networking coffee break |
11:50 |
Panel / Thought leadership forum
Sarah Beale poses the question ‘We all know we need to be more ‘lean’, but the real question is, what are we doing about it?' In her presentation, find out how the CITB, the Lean Construction Institute UK and other partners are collaborating to meet the rapidly developing demand for 'lean' construction learning support. The panel will be taking questions and discussing how they are embracing 'lean', the challenges of becoming 'lean' in an industry that can sometimes be set in its ways and how they see 'lean' in the future of Construction.
Presented by: Sarah Beale, Chief Executive of CITB is joined by Duncan Elliott, Managing Director of Highways at Galliford Try, Grant Findlay, Director of Business Development and Work Winning |
12:30 |
Lean people are the future
Presented by: Brian Swain, Chairman of the Lean Construction Institute UK and David Anderson, Head of Business Process and Quality at BAM Nuttall |
13:00 |
Transforming a major infrastructure organisation
Presented by: Peter Mumford, Executive Director for Major Projects and Capital Portfolio Management at Highways England |
13:40 | A few words from the chair Rob Walley, Board Director of the Lean Construction Institute UK and Senior Partner at Bourton Group |
13:45 | Networking buffet lunch |
14:30 | Access to UK Construction Week - Halls 9,10,11 & 12 |
16:00 |
(16:00 Seminar Location: UK Construction Week - Hall 9 - Regeneration HUB)
How to embed a 'Lean' culture on the UK’s largest infrastructure project worth £1.5b
Presented by: Nicole Preston, Head of Operational Excellence at A14 Integrated Delivery Team and Brian Swain, Chairman of the Lean Construction Institute UK |
16:30 |
Closing remarks from the chair Rob Walley, Board Director of the Lean Construction Institute UK and Senior Partner at Bourton Group |
16:40 | Close of summit |
Speakers

Nicole Preston
Head of Operational Excellence (A14)
Balfour Beatty, A14 Integrated Delivery Team

Grant Findlay
Director of Business Development and Work Winning
Sir Robert McAlpine Ltd
Rob Walley
Senior Partner
Bourton Group
Over the last 25 years, Rob has developed successful relationships with businesses in a wide range sectors including Construction and Infrastructure in both Public and Private sectors. Rob is recognised as an Industry expert in the deployment of Lean within the Roads and Infrastructure sector and he leads Bourton Group’s work throughout the Construction and Infrastructure sector. He has a reputation for successfully managing complex Lean improvement programmes as well as multi-disciplinary business reorganisations often helping complex, regulated organisations improve their operational performance.
Rob is also a Director of the International Consulting Network, a collaboration of a number of international consulting organisations of which Bourton Group is a founder member.
Outside Bourton Group, Rob has held senior, board level managerial positions and has a BEng (Honours) degree in Production Engineering and Production Management from Nottingham University.
Sarah Beale
Chief Executive
CITB
Sarah became Chief Executive of CITB in January 2017.
Sarah is passionate about promoting the need for diversity within a workforce and the business value that it can bring, from the productivity gains to thought leadership. Sarah uses this passion to help address and influence the skills needs of the construction industry and, through her leadership, seeks to add value to the sector; whether it is encouraging young people into the industry, training and developing those already in the workforce or building a more positive, inclusive image of the sector.
Since appointment Sarah has launched an ambitious three-year Vision 2020 programme of significant reform which will see the organisation become more responsive and valued by the industry it serves. Sarah’s focus is now to ensure that Vision 2020 programme
becomes reality.
Prior to her most recent appointment Sarah has held a number of senior roles within CITB and before that in finance based roles in both commercial environments and not‐for‐profit organisations. She has led on several transformational programmes, including company mergers, systems development and a variety of people and management-related projects.
Peter Mumford
Executive Director
Highways England
Peter is Highways England’s Executive Director for Major Projects and Capital Portfolio Management, having held the post since September 2017. In his role, Peter is responsible for leading the delivery of the governments £15BN investment into the strategic road network through a national team of some 800 people, whilst also helping to lead the broader business across all of its activity. Prior to this role, Peter has held a number of senior positions as Partner and Director at leading international engineering and construction consultancy organisations, working both in the UK and internationally.
Keith Waller
Programme Director
Construction Innovation Hub
Keith Waller is the Construction Innovation Hub’s Programme Director. A Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Keith has been involved in construction and infrastructure projects for over 30 years, leading many major projects in both the UK and overseas.
In 2010, Keith was seconded into government with Infrastructure UK (the predecessor to the Infrastructure and Projects Authority). He has served on several boards and cross-Whitehall groups, including the Infrastructure Client Group, the Offshore Wind Programme Board, Infrastructure Working Group of the Green Construction Board and the Government Construction Board. He has also advised a number of foreign governments on strategic infrastructure planning and delivery.
A keen advocate of driving innovative and productive solutions, his work in government led to the publication of the UK’s first National Infrastructure Plan, the development of the Infrastructure Cost Review and the IPA’s Transforming Infrastructure Performance programme, published in 2017.
Kevin McHugh
Associate Director
Mace
With a Masters’ degree in Operations Management, Kevin brings experience from a uniquely diverse series of roles he has undertaken during his career to date, working as a Senior Project Engineer, Planner & Project Manager, he has developed an in depth understanding of what it takes to deliver lean construction projects and the requirements for applying lean techniques to underpin each stage of a project.
With a Masters’ degree in Operations Management, Kevin brings experience from a uniquely diverse series of roles he has undertaken during his career to date, working as a Senior Project Engineer, Planner & Project Manager, he has developed an in depth understanding of what it takes to deliver lean construction projects and the requirements for applying lean techniques to underpin each stage of a project.
With a Masters’ degree in Operations Management, Kevin brings experience from a uniquely diverse series of roles he has undertaken during his career to date, working as a Senior Project Engineer, Planner & Project Manager, he has developed an in depth understanding of what it takes to deliver lean construction projects and the requirements for applying lean techniques to underpin each stage of a project.
Menno de Jonge
Director of Digital Construction
Royal BAM Group
As a Director Digital Construction of Royal BAM Group, Menno is leading BAM to its position as a leader in digital construction in the international construction industry. With over 30 years of experience within the European construction industry, and in construction technology, Menno brings perspectives from both sides of the technology spectrum. Menno has been responsible for IT implementations in the area of CAD, BIM, Lean Construction, Data and Document Management, ERP, HRM, Asset Management and more, and is highly active in European industry standards bodies.
Brian Swain
Chairman
The Lean Construction Institute UK
Brian Swain is Chairman of The Lean Construction Institute UK, and an organisational development consultant with twenty five years’ experience working in construction, manufacturing and service companies throughout the UK and Western Europe.
He often typifies his approach as individual, organisational and corporate coaching.
Brian’s work is focused on the Lean Transformation of companies through team building and personal development within the context of process management, continuous improvement and organisational design. He works at all levels in large and small organisations but with a primary focus on Value Stream Development in regard to a company’s strategic and operational imperatives.
Additionally, Brian has project managed and co-authored textbooks and manuals for work-based management development. He is a founding Director of Rubicon Associates, Brian Swain Ltd, Lean Construction International and The Lean Construction Institute UK (LCI-UK).
Steve Savage
Operations and People Director
Citu
Steve trained as an electrical and mechanical engineering apprentice before going on to study design and management at university. He worked for BMW for a decade where he oversaw the production of more than two million MINIs at the company’s plant in Oxford. His automotive industry background and proven expertise in streamlining manufacturing processing aligns perfectly with Citu’s approach, who are an innovative UK developer tackling climate change head-on, by combining lean and passive house principles to provide customer value while helping them to reduce their carbon footprint.
Citu’s ambition is to be a disruptor of housing: zero-carbon, innovative, and using cutting edge technology to create great places to live, work, learn and play. Citu’s unique story includes an integrated project delivery model with an off-site manufacturing facility, multi-skilled trade “squads” and much more!
Nicole Preston
Head of Operational Excellence (A14)
Balfour Beatty, A14 Integrated Delivery Team
Nicole has worked as a Civil Engineer for Balfour Beatty for 10 years. She started as a Section Engineer in 2009 working her way up the Engineers grades, now achieving Head of Operational Excellence for Balfour Beatty Southern Regional Investment Programme. She is lucky enough to be managing Lean on the A14, the country’s largest infrastructure project, valued at £1.5b.
Since she arrived on the A14 project three years ago, she has led the continuous improvement culture, embedding the Operational Excellence Strategy, starting with rolling out a new ideas process, encouraging improved innovative ways of working, giving everyone the ability to add value and reduce costs for all parties involved. She then linked this into the Risk and Opportunity process, ensuring all good ideas/efficiencies have business cases and commercially assured by the client.
The aim of Nicole's Operational Excellence team on the A14 is to lower operational risk and lower operating costs, creating value for customers, supply chain and stakeholders, whilst beholding the highest safety and quality standards. Operational Excellence goes beyond the benefits model of improvement, towards a long-term change in organisation culture. By empowering the delivery team to identify a smarter way of working enables cost savings to be realised, and critical programme demands met or improved upon. Through a Lean methodology using Lean tools and techniques to enable bottlenecks to be identified, measured and mitigated. Nicole lead a team that focused on meeting customer expectation through continuous improvement of the operational delivery, mapping construction processes, finding the root cause for non-completion and error proofing repeated activity. It is described as doing the right thing, the right way, every time, reducing waste and increasing productivity.
Nicole has led the A14 project through ISO44001 accreditation, through strong project collaborative relationships, scoring industry high Collaborative Performance Framework (CPF) scores and hitting the Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s). Proving they are world class and industry leading.
Craig Davies
Group World Class Manufacturing Manager
Citu
Craig studied Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering at Loughborough and Warwick University before starting his career in the Automotive sector. It was during the 5 years in this sector that Craig’s passion for Lean really grew, leading to him becoming a Lean6Sigma Black Belt. Craig then spent a decade working in FMCG for Molson Coors, initially leading the Lean change program at one of their UK sites, and latterly moving into Engineering and Operations Leadership roles at the UKs biggest brewer. Craig’s experience in leading change within manufacturing organisations is well aligned with Citu’s strategy for growth and development of the organisation. He is leading the deployment of Citu Production System, Citu’s approach to combine day-to-day construction stability with team-led Continuous Improvement to tackle climate change head on.
Duncan Elliott
Managing Director of the Highways business
Galliford Try
Duncan Elliott is the Managing Director of the Highways business unit within Galliford Try.
Duncan has fulfilled a leading role across the construction industry for many years and operated within the water, energy, environment, highways and regional civil engineering sectors
He has fulfilled leading roles within several collaborative contracting arrangements and representing many of the large construction organisations and supplier partners within the UK in addition to many years of Joint Venture working
As a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers Duncan is motivated by an ambition to lead improving performance within the construction industry through flourishing people; looking forward to the days when our industry doesn’t harm anyone, it returns good margins for good performance and more than satisfies the needs and wishes of its clients
The Galliford Try Highways Business is growing rapidly with great people and currently delivers for numerous Local Authorities and Highways England across the country
David Anderson
Head of Business, Process and Quality for BAM Nuttall
BAM Nuttall
David has over 30 years experience within the construction industry across multiple sectors. His background in project management and delivery has allows him to really understand the value chain across the whole project lifecycle. He has a wide background in Lean development and deployment and is a current director of the Lean Construction Institute and a chair of the ENCORD Lean work group ( ENCORD is a European wide construction research and development group). He is responsible for leading the strategic deployment of Lean thinking across BAM Nuttall and leads a wider Royal BAM Group aimed at increasing Lean maturity across all operations worldwide. He is passionate about developing peoples Lean thinking to enable everyone to work together in a smarter, collaborative efficient manner no matter what their role.
Sharon Banks
Head of Lean and Continuous Improvement
Highways England
Sharon Banks has had a career with the British Government spanning nearly 40 years, with extensive experience in both Programme and Operational Management, having managed diverse teams ranging from small specialism’s to wide national delivery with responsibility for over 3000 people.
Having been trained by Toyota Sensai in the Lean approach Sharon has spent the last 15 years developing and implementing Lean Strategies across Government. She has helped a variety of areas to meet the stringent demands of Government policy, most notably Department for Work and Pensions, where she was instrumental in enabling them in reducing the workforce by 20,000 whilst at the same time increasing productivity by over 10%.
During the last 5 years Sharon has been deploying Lean within the construction industry at Highways England. As a newly formed Government Company Highways England has a huge challenge in meeting the increased demand for efficient infrastructure. It is also developing its future business model to respond to the Digital world around us. As Head of Lean Sharon believes the construction industry is on the brink of a revolution and that Lean is the enabler that will provide the firm foundation on which this bright new future can be built.
Grant Findlay
Director of Business Development and Work Winning
Sir Robert McAlpine Ltd
Grant Findlay is a Chartered Civil Engineer with over 25 years of experience in the engineering and construction industry. He is director of new business and work winning for Sir Robert McAlpine. He has previously held project and business leadership positions, and has a proven track record for delivering nationally and internationally significant projects and programmes of work, which includes;
- A74(M) Glasgow to Carlisle, for Scottish Office
- Trans-Asian Highway No 1, Ho Chi Minh City to Phnom Penh
- Express Rail Link, Malaysia
- New Accommodation Project for GCHQ
- Broadcast and media facilities for London 2012 Olympics
- Project Allenby Connaught for MoD
- European HQ for Bloomberg
Grant is passionately committed to skills development in the construction sector by improving links between enterprise and education; he is the Construction Sector Advisor to the Career College Trust, founded in 2014 by Lord Baker.
This year, he has been instrumental in establishing the Construction Data Trust, with the aim of transforming the delivery of construction projects through the application of data analytics to securely stored and pooled data.
Matt Stacey
Divisional Director
Highways, BAM Nuttall
Matt was responsible for leading the creation and development of the BAM Nuttall Highways Division into the successful business it is today.
Having worked collaboratively for more than thirty years on major projects, highways and waterways frameworks and term contracts, Matt has maximised the benefits of integrated team working. His management approach has helped transform financial and safety performance and has led to strong client and team relations.
Well respected for his relationship skills with clients, partners and his own team, Matt seeks to unite all parties to rationalise alternative points of view to find a mutually rewarding way to resolve challenges.
He has embedded a culture of collaborative working practices and champions the benefits of behavioural management, lean management, value engineering, innovation and teamwork.
Matt recognises there are plenty more opportunities for further improvement and so is driving efficiency through the application of lean across the whole business process, drawing upon the full potential of technology and digital construction to unlock future efficiencies. This aligns with BAM’s vision to ensure we have a business fit for the future challenges and opportunities.
Who's attending
The summit is attended by professionals within the construction industry who wish to develop or strengthen their understanding of 'Lean' by tapping in to other people’s experiences through our diverse programme of seminars and speakers. Opportunities to network, share knowledge and practices and learn from like-minded 'Lean' professionals on a more informal basis are also offered throughout the day.
Attending companies:
- Amey
- Atkins
- Balfour Beatty
- BAM Nuttall Ltd
- Bourton Group
- Bouygues UK
- Cementation Skanska Ltd
- Colas Ltd
- Galliford Try
- Geoffrey Osborne
- Highways England
- Interserve Construction Limited
- Jacobs
- Kier
- Laing O'Rourke
- Mace Limited
- Mott MacDonald
- Network Rail
- Sir Robert McAlpine
- WSP UK Ltd
- And many more
Venue
The Concourse Suite, NEC Birmingham, North Ave, Marston Green, Birmingham, B40 1NT.
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Sponsors / Partners
We are Royal BAM Group one of Europe’s largest contractors, established for more than 150 years. We deliver exceptional engineering, construction and investment services across private and public sector projects, in the UK and abroad. BAM Nuttall is one of 10 operating companies specialising in Civil Engineering in the UK. Our projects range from road, rail and airports, to marine, tunnelling, and energy schemes. We’re driven by a desire to make a difference to communities, the environment and people’s lives. Our goal is to build sustainable infrastructure that helps economic growth and allows us be kind to our planet – today and in the future.
At BAM, we do things differently, we’re a catalyst for change across the industry. We continually seek new ways to improve productivity, sustainability and safety. We understand the importance of Lean thinking and practice Lean, to increase value for the customer and support future sustainability of BAM. We’re unrelenting in our drive to eliminate waste – wasted time, effort and materials. Eliminating waste creates value for everything we do. Tasks taking less time, and teams getting it right first time, makes working at BAM safer, more enjoyable and fulfilling for our people. And customers learn about, and experience, delivering value, when working in partnership with BAM.
Galliford Try is a FTSE 250 business and one of the UK's leading housebuilding, regeneration and construction groups with revenues of £2.8billion.
We operate through three strong businesses: Linden Homes, Galliford Try Partnerships and Construction & Investments. We make an important contribution to meeting the demand for new homes in the private and affordable homes sectors, regenerating neighbourhoods and working to improve the UK’s built environment, delivering positive, lasting change for the communities we work in on behalf of our clients.
Our company is founded on our values of excellence, passion, integrity and collaboration, and our vision is to be leaders in the construction of a sustainable future.
Orbital Fasteners are the largest and marketing leading INDEPENDENT distributor of fixings, fasteners, hand and power tools, handrail systems, channel and bracketry and site consumables.
Strategically located just off Junction 17 or 18 of the M25, they offer guaranteed NEXT DAY delivery in to Central London and the neighbouring Home Counties on our their fleet of vehicles.
They deliver nationally on DPD or DX couriers and have a “CLICK AND COLLECT” service available from 7.00AM Monday – Friday from their Trade Counter in Watford.
With over 27,000 product lines, unmatchable customer service and a great sales team with excellent product knowledge and technical knowhow, you can entrust Orbital Fasteners with all your fixings, fastener and site consumable requirements.”
We're invested in you and your success.
What we do is more than a job, we work every day to make the world better for all. Everything we do – from addressing water scarcity and aging infrastructure to ensuring access to life-saving therapies and protecting against sophisticated cyberattacks – is more than projects outlined in proposal requests. They’re our challenges as human beings, too.
That’s why we bring a thoughtful and collaborative approach to every one of our partnerships. We know we can help our partners make a positive impact on the world. We lead large project teams with many different companies and agencies – but make sure everyone’s voice has a chance to be heard and respected.
Our purpose is to improve people’s lives by delivering integrated leading edge smart infrastructure solutions to meet national needs across the UK’s energy, water, transportation and defence markets.
Bourton Group is an operational management consultancy who help their clients transform and improve their ways of working. For over 50 years they have listened closely to their clients to understand their needs and collaborated to ‘help make their business better’.
As experts in business transformation and change management they engage leaders and teams and drive measurable and sustainable improvement in business processes and people performance.
They make operations more efficient, eliminating waste and increasing customer satisfaction by using Lean and Six Sigma methods and by building our clients ability to carry on improving.
In its 5th year, UK Construction Week (UKCW) takes place on 8-10 October and brings together all stakeholders within the built environment across design, build and supply; promoting innovation, projects, learning and networking.
As the largest event dedicated to knowledge sharing, best practice, problem solving and product sourcing, it is the environment for the whole industry to discover, develop, discuss and do business; providing all the answers for how we build for our future. UKCW is FREE to attend and welcomes 650+ exhibitors, 35,000 visitors, over 300 expert speaker line-up and over 150 hours of CPD content.
With a single registration, visitors can enter the co-located sections including: Build, Building Tech, Civils, Energy & HVAC, Surface & Materials, Timber and Grand Designs Live (free entry is for 9-10 October only) and newly launched Concrete Expo (8-9 October only).
Ticket Prices
Standard Ticket Price: £199 + VAT
LCI-UK Member Price: £149 +VAT (25% off Standard Price*)
*LCI-UK Members please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for your discount code
Contact us
For delegate booking enquiries please contact: Jenny Gray, Senior Summit & Conference Manager
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T: 020 3225 5200
If you are interested in exhibiting or becoming a sponsor please contact:
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*It may be necessary for reasons beyond our reasonable control to alter the advertised content, timing and/or location of the event or the advertised speakers. We reserve the right to do this at any time. Delegate info pack